slang or colloq. [f. next vb.]
† 1. Drink, liquor, ‘booze.’ Obs.
1680. R. L’Estrange, Colloq. Erasm., 124. They have taken their Dose of Fuddle.
c. 1680. Roxb. Ball. (1890), VII. 78. With a cup of fuddle.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Fuddle, Drink.
1706. E. Ward, Hud. Rediv., I. v. We sipp’d our Fuddle, As Women in the Straw do Caudle.
2. A drinking bout. On the fuddle: out for a lengthened spell of drinking.
a. 1813. A. Wilson, My Landlady’s Nose, Poet. Wks. (1846), 301. Old Patrick M‘Dougherty when on the fuddle, Pulls out a cigar, and [etc.].
1832–53. Whistle-Binkie (Scot. Songs), Ser. III. 111.
| For a ance-a year fuddle I’d scarce gie a strae, | |
| Unless that ilk year were as short as a day. |
1865. B. Brierley, Irkdale, I. 61. At th’ height of a wakes fuddle.
1891. Newcastle Even. Chron., 29 Jan., 3/1. She usually provided food in the house when she was not on the ‘fuddle.’
3. Intoxication; an intoxicated state.
1764. Low Life, 24. In order to take large Morning Draughts, and secure the first Fuddle of the Day.
1892. A. Murdoch, Yoshiwara Episode, 67. If he were only in his senses, instead of in a fuddle, the fun would be worth the watching!
4. transf. The state of being muddled, confused, or the like.
1827. R. H. Froude, Rem. (1838), I. 219. My notions about it have been, in many respects, very fuddled and bewildered; and, I suppose, if I were to attempt to analyse and explain them, I might raise my fuddle to the nth power.
1880. T. E. Webb, trans. Goethe’s Faust, II. v.
| He gnawed—he scratched—he rushed about— | |
| Vain was his frenzied fuddle. |
